Talking about James Bond in last weeks Radio Times, film critic Barry Norman made the statement: Ask anybody: who is your favourite James bond? I guarantee the answer will be the first one they ever saw”. I’m not sure if I am more discerning or just awkward, but it isn’t true of me. To the best of my knowledge and memory the first Bond I saw was Roger Moore in Live and Let Die. Moore is far from my favourite Bond, but I have recently come to the conclusion that I don’t know who my favourite Bond is! For years I have always claimed it is Sean Connery with the caveat that Timothy Dalton is the closest to the character from Ian Fleming’s novels.

I hold with the popular opinion that George Lazenby was the worst Bond, and this is a great shame as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is one of the best Bond films despite him. He is closely followed by Roger Moore whose comic version of Bond just doesn’t work for me. He did however make some decent movies, Live and Let Die and The Spy Who Loved Me were both really good films. The Man with the Golden Gun isn’t as good but does benefit from a fantastic performance from Christopher Lee as the villian Scaramanga.

So Back to who is my favourite Bond, Sean Connery certainly had the best stories with relatively faithful adaptations of Dr. No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball. You Only Live Twice is the point where the franchise started to get silly and even became a parody of itself, it was however still a good film in its own right. Connery’s only misstep was Diamonds Are Forever that was both silly and dull.

I have already said Timothy Dalton most closely resembles the character from the books in his portrayal, but there is another actor who probably looks most like Bond, Pierce Brosnan. This may be a bit of a stretch as there is little description of Bonds appearance beyond his short black hair and a resemblance to Hoagy Carmichael. Pierce Brosnan isn’t my favourite Bond either. He is perfect for the films he made and the time they were made, but sadly most of them weren’t actually very good. After a strong opening with GoldenEye the rest of his films got progressively worse culminating with the car crash of a movie, Die Another Day that was as bad as anything Moore did.

This leaves us with two contenders: Timothy Dalton who was hamstrung by only making two appearances both of them being good but not great films, The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. Had he made more films he could well have been my favourite Bond but for reasons to long winded and complicated to go into today he didn’t. And finally Daniel Craig, Casino Royale is certainly one of my favourite Bond films and Quantum of Solace is underrated and will probably age well, but is he my favourite? Not yet but he may well be in future, with three more movies including Skyfall due out next month, he will certainly have a chance before handing his Aston Martin and Walther PPK to Michael Fassbender, my choice for the next James Bond.

With the long awaited, Sam Mendes directed James Bond movie less than six months away the internet is awash with images from the new film. Some official, some blurry grainy unofficial set shots. Below are a few of them along with some random thoughts.

In an early scene in In Dr. No. (1962) James Bond (Sean Connery) is forced to hand his beloved Beretta M1934 in to be replaced by 7.65 mm Walther PPK (the scene is taken almost verbatim from Ian Fleming’s novel after a readers recommendation that the Walther was a more suitable weapon for Bond). Bond continued to use his trusty PPK until Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) when he first got his hands on the new Walther P99. Keen eyed viewers may have noticed that in Quantum of Solace (2008) Bond (Daniel Craig) had reverted to the PPK. This and other images show him using the iconic old gun again in Skyfall.

First seen in Goldfinger (1964) the Aston Martin DB5 has become one of the most recognisable cars in movie history. Bond drove it again in Thunderball (1965). It didn’t appear again until Golden Eye (1995), where it appears to have become Bonds personal car where it is involved in a great scene involving a race with a Ferrari 355. A DB5 also had a brief appearance in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) but made a more significant appearance in Casino Royale when Bond won one in a poker game. This image shows it will appear in Skyfall, and from the grey overcast sky I am guessing Bond has shipped his prize from the Bahamas to the UK.

When it was announced that Naomie Harris would appear in Skyfall, early speculation had her playing Moneypenny, it has since been announced that her character is called Eve. Little is known about the character but the description of her as “a field agent” suggests she will be far more than just eye candy. Images of her firing guns back this up.